FAQ Categories

Packing

We are a consolidator and repacker, not a simple bundler or forwarder. We open all your incoming packages and repack the items, Tetris-style, into the final outgoing shipping box. This is what reduces the dimensional weight and saves you all the money.

Why repacking is important:

First, most incoming packages arrive half empty. The online retailers don't care because most of them don't get charged for the dimensional weight when shipping domestically. When we ship overseas, however, avoiding the dimensional weight surcharge is THE most important thing we do to save you money. Exporting all that American air overseas is extremely expensive!

Second, online retailers generally don't pack their packages very carefully. Export shipments require more meticulous packing because they face more airline transfers, extra handling at customs, and final delivery in many destinations over bumpy roads. We won't just throw all your items into the outgoing box. We will reuse some of the incoming boxes and packaging materials to give your outgoing box some organization and structure. That is why we are called "PacMe."

Third, several countries, notably Australia, are starting to crack down on packages that have several packages inside. We avoid this by discarding the original shipping boxes and repacking the items directly into the outgoing box.

Here's a few notes about what happens after you submit a consolidation.

The cost estimate you see when you submit a consolidation is just an estimate. It will be accurate if your total weight is over 20lbs and if dim weight was not triggered by much. Our algorithms can't catch everything, however. A real human will look at it before charging your card. We will contact you before shipping if there are any issues.

If you are submitting a small consolidation as a first timer, check out the FAQ link below. We will remove all of our fees and subsidize the shipping charge until you are more accustomed to our "Go Big" business model. Or you can cancel the consolidation and do more shopping.

We check the consolidation log when we first arrive in the warehouse in the morning, but we usually don't start consolidations until later in the day. Our shipping deadline is around 3:30pm Pacific Time (-7/8 UTC). Carrier planes move at night, so getting it done earlier doesn't really matter. However...

We start European consolidations first so that we can reach you before you go to sleep - in case we have any last minute questions.

In Asia, our 3.30pm deadline is already in the very early morning your time so having a last minute communication before the shipping deadline is a little trickier. Sometimes we will make the decision ourselves, but will delay a day if we believe that's the right thing to do.

Your virtual account will be dinged first, if you have a balance, then we will charge your credit card.

Put a message in the consolidation's chat box if you need to provide us with more information.

If you would like to combine consolidations with another customer, here is the protocol:

Both customers should submit their own consolidation normally. Both customers must put a note in the respective consolidation chat boxes confirming whose address should be used for the combined shipment. (When submitting the consolidation, choose the same transit time and shipping method, usually "pacme preferred," and we will adjust the fees later.)

When doing the consolidation, we will attempt to keep each customer's items bagged or identified so it's easy to split them out on your end, but avoiding dim weight expense, possibly by shuffling things around, will take precedence unless you tell us otherwise.

The PacMe fees (incoming package and consolidation fees) remain the same for each customer as if we were shipping each consolidation separately because we are essentially doing the same amount of work. We would reduce the consolidation fee if we were simply tossing a few small items into another customer's box, however.

To determine each customer's shipping expense, we will calculate the $/kg rate from the overall shipping cost and then apply that rate to each customer's weight. This could get a little tricky if dimensional weight is a big issue. We will try to explain our reasoning, but you can split the cost however you want after the fact.

We will charge each customer's account separately unless you tell us otherwise.